Emma Samuelsson

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My memory might be a bit hazy, but Together dealt with the following subjects among a dozen different characters: growing up, divorce, lesbianism/homosexuality, loneliness, Communism, spousal abuse, shoddy parenting, infidelity, and marital discontent. I might have forgotten about the release of Abba's third album in there, but again my memory flickers.

What I do remember is that the movie takes place in 1975 Stockholm at a large house full of free-loving Communists -- kind of like The Real World, if Karl Marx and Hugh Hefner shared a flat with an MTV feed. The leader of the group is Göran (Gustav Hammertoe), a gentle fellow with a great beard, whose sister, Elisabeth (Lisa Lindgren), escapes her abusive lout of a husband, Rolf (Michael Nyqvist) by moving with her two kids into Göran's clan. This, of course, sets in motion a series of changes for everyone in the house.

It's palatable, remarkable and amusing, the completeness with which "Together" captures the carefree spirit of commune life in 1970s Stockholm -- and the cancerous human nature that threatens the hippie bliss.

Within its first few minutes, the film has introduced us to an appealing houseful of unharmonious idealists as they get into a heated argument about the sanitary etiquette of going bottomless to the dinner table and whether or not it's bourgeois to wash up before eating.

Into this scene of clashing alt-culture domesticity walks Goran (Gustaf Hammarsten), the house's peacemaker and emasculated doormat, bringing his suburban housewife sister and her two kids who need a place to stay after leaving her abusive, drunken lout of a husband.